Dresden Pouch

A couple of days ago I was leafing through a book I have called Sew Gifts.  A few months ago I made a pencil-case from the book.   I decided that I was in the mood to sew another zippered pouch when I saw the Dresden plate one.  

It was an easy matter to zip up some petals--- i just used my handy dresden plate ruler and cut ny pieces from 2-1/2" strips...

I decided to sew an arc for each side of the pouch, using 19 different fabrics,

I also added in a layer of quilt batting to give the pouch a bit more body.

Not much quilting, just some pink hand-stitching to echo the shape, and a few rows of machine stitching in light grey.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out.   It was just the day for a quick and easy project. 

Pencil Case, Version 2

Last week I made a pencil case using the book Sew Gifts!:

I liked how it turned out, but I couldn't help but wonder if I'd like it more if I quilted the exterior sides before sewing it together,

so this morning I made a second version. 
I pieced the front in pretty similar colors, except for using a darker brown for the wooden part of the crayons,
I picked a different fabric for the back of the pencil case because I had run out of the gray Essex linen I had used earlier. 

 For the batting and backing, I used some leftover pieces that I had cut from the edge of a quilt that I had had quilted by a long arm quilter.  It is nice to keep these edges around for when you need to try out a free motion quilting pattern before committing it to a real quilt.
I cut the pieces larger than the called for size so that they would be easier to handle, plus, they might get distorted or change size during the quilting process...
On the back piece, I did some parallel lines, about 3/16" apart.

 I love the way that quilting adds texture, all the little shadows,

 this shows how different a piece looks quilted and unquilted

I used an invisible thread,

 then, I trimmed the pieces down to the called for size,

 

 I finished sewing the pencil case exactly according to the directions in the book,

This shows both pencil cases together.

  

I am quite enjoying making these, I can foresee more pouches on my to-do list......